Drying, I think we will all admit, does not and cannot take the place of canning fruits and vegetables in glass or tin.  Drying and canning are twin sisters, and always go hand in hand.

The ideal arrangement for all homes, whether on the farm, in the village, in the town or in the city, is to have an ample supply of canned food for emergencies and quick service, and an equally ample supply of dried foods when meals are planned beforehand and there is time enough for the soaking and cooking of the dried foods.

THE ADVANTAGES OF DRYING

When we come right down to facts, drying has many advantages over canning.

The process is very simple, as you will see.  The cost is slight.  In almost every home the necessary equipment, in its simplest form, is already at hand.  There is no expense for glass jars or tin cans, and with ordinary care there is no loss of products, as there may be in handling glass jars or from spoilage.  The actual work requires less time and less skill than canning and the dried products when properly prepared are just as good as the canned ones—­some say better.

One special thing in favor of drying is the little storage space needed.  You can often reduce 100 pounds of fresh product to ten pounds by drying, without any loss of food value and with little loss of flavor.

Dried products can be moved more conveniently than glass jars or tin cans, for they are usually reduced to from one-third to one-fifth of the original bulk.

Another valuable thing about drying is that the little odds and ends one would scarcely bother to can may be dried in the oven as you go about your housework.

I have often been asked the difference between the meaning of the terms “evaporated,” “dried,” “desiccated” and “dehydrated.”  These terms are used more or less interchangeably when applied to foods from which the moisture has been removed.  In a general way, however, “evaporated” products are those from which the moisture has been removed through the agency of artificial heat; dried fruit is that which has been exposed to the heat of the sun, though not infrequently the term is applied to products handled in the evaporator.  The other terms are commonly applied to products that have been evaporated by one of the various patented processes in which equipment of some special design has been used.

To avoid any confusion we will use the general term “dried” for all products that have enough of the water removed to prevent bacterial action, but which still retain the maximum food value, color and flavor of the original product.  And that is what we want to accomplish when we attempt to dry.

How are we to remove the water and still retain food value, color and flavor?  There are three principal methods by which we can do this.  First, by artificial heat.  Drying by artificial heat is done in the oven or on top of a cookstove or range, in trays suspended on the stove or in a specially constructed dryer built at home or purchased.